Earth gets wetter to fight global warming

The Australian ^ | May 11, 2004 | Amanda Hodge

[presidio9]

THE Earth may be fighting back against global warming, say scientists who believe the world is getting wetter as it warms, improving the planet's ability to soak up carbon dioxide.

Research from Australian scientists released during the annual science meeting of the Co-operative Research Centre for Greenhouse Accounting, supports the notion that the Earth is self-regulating.

The centre's communique suggests that, contrary to popular perceptions, the Earth is getting wetter - not necessarily through greater rainfall but through a reduction in evaporation caused by cloudier days that prompt more efficient photosynthesis.

Research centre chief Chris Mitchell said such conditions could favour long-lived woody plants such as trees, which were capable of storing greater amounts of atmospheric carbon than shorter-lived plants such as grass.

In Australia that trend could already be seen in the tropical north, where grasslands were being replaced by woodlands, although scientists had still to determine whether that was caused by warmer temperatures or by factors including changes in grazing and fire regimes.

Scientists expect that trend will continue. "The CRC's work suggests the global biosphere is more resilient than we first thought," Dr Mitchell said.

"It's certainly going to be debated within the science community but ... if we continue to deforest and burn the benefits of this resilience won't last.

"What we do know is if we push the system in the wrong direction we could make global climate change worse."

The research is further confused by recent evidence that Australia's phosphorous-poor soils could negate the benefits to plants from increased carbon and cloudy conditions.

And while climate changes might be good news for some species, the future is not so bright for animals endemic to grassland which are dying out at rates faster than ever before witnessed.

Earlier this year a comprehensive study published in Nature found that climate change could drive up to 40 per cent of all land animals and plants into extinction within 50 years.

CSIRO atmospheric research scientist Penny Whetton, a member of the International Panel on Climate Change, said there was no inconsistency between the IPCC findings -- which indicated that global rainfall would increase even though it would decline markedly in areas such as southern Australia -- and the CRC research.

[thoughtomator]

For those of us frightened silly by "global cooling", this is great news ;)

[RetiredArmy]

Well, it certainly is here in the great NorthWET. We have had rain for the past two days. However, it has been a really nice and dry spring to this point. But, here, that leads to severe water shortages as the snow packs melt too soon and run off too soon.

[Libertarianize the GOP]

ping

[LiteKeeper]

INTREP - JUNKSCIENCE ALERT!

[Mike Darancette]

Earth gets wetter to fight global warming

This ol' world is pretty smart.

[whd23]

This is proof of the "Mother Earth (Gaia)" belief. Gets hot, gets wet. :)

[BlazingArizona]

The flat-earth lobby seems to share a core belief that the major cycles and processes of nature are "catastrophic" rather than homeostatic - in other words, that if we push against anything in nature, we usually reach a point where the system falls out of balance, collapses, and cannot be restored.

Why do I think they're wrong? Because the fossil record reveals that there have been a succession of past eras of much higher and lower temperatures than today, periods of greater wet and dry, meteoric bombardments, and huge volcanic eruptions. If nature were ripe for being pushed across a tipping point into disaster, this would already have happened in prehistory.

[Alas Babylon!]

Oh but it has. There has been several mass extinctions in the past, many so severe that almost all life died out. So there truly is nothing new under the sun. The environmentalists want to think they're living in unique times, and only they can prevent catastrophe, but that's just an egotistical fantasy.

[AFPhys]

the junk scientists who claim they have any concept about how the massive system we call "earth" reacts to environmental inputs are completely out of their minds. this article reinforces that view. something so elementary would have been touted long ago if they did.

[biblewonk]

Research from Australian scientists released during the annual science meeting of the Co-operative Research Centre for Greenhouse Accounting, supports the notion that the Earth is self-regulating.

Duh, global warming = bigger biosphere = more plants eating CO2 = global cooling.

[eggman]

"What we do know is if we push the system in the wrong direction we could make global climate change worse."

What do we really know? Everything they say about global climate change is an assumption based on various models. Assuming we could push the system hard enough and long enough in the wrong direction we could make global climate change worse. They assume that we have the power to overcome a global climatic system that has been in balance for hundreds of centuries yet we have only been studying its details for a few decades.

They might as well just tell us that we have angered the gods and we will be punished with (pick one or more - flooding, drought, heat, cold, famine) unless we obey them, for they are the ones that understand how to communicate with the gods.

[farmfriend]

Rights, farms, environment ping.
Let me know if you wish to be added or removed from this list.
I don't get offended if you want to be removed.

[JasonC]

Hysterical red herring spin trying to avoid the real issue raised by the finding, which isn't about grassland or species or Australian soil peculiarities. It is about global temperature sensitivity. It is a damping feedback. And the warming models not only need no dampeners, they need huge amplifiers, to fill out the missing three quarters or so of their power budget. And to get that much, they need water vapor to be an amplifier not a dampener. But it has just been shown to be a dampener not an amplifier. The 3-5C scare predictions are running out of places to hide. They've never been able to name where that much power was supposed to come from.

[E.G.C.]

BTTT!!!!!!

[Libertina]

News Flash:

YES, God has a plan ;) Let not your heart be troubled.

[DennisR]

higher temperatures = melting of icecaps = higher oceanic water levels = more oceanic surface area = higher evaporation = higher humidity in air = less heating of the earth from sun because rays are reflected back into outer space and are also absorbed by water molecules in the atmosphere = global cooling

[F.J. Mitchell]

Earth is getting wetter from those liberal eco freaks peeing their britches and sweating profusely, out of fear of the global warming boogey man.

[RightWhale]

The amount of water on earth would remain the same whether the planet is warmer or cooler within a range. If the earth warms, there would be more evaporation from the warmer areas and it would precipitate over the cooler regions. Could we expect the equatorial regions to dry out and the polar areas to begin gettng more snow or rain? Would this lead to icecaps?

[DennisR]

RightWhale,

Hm...do not know. I would think that since there would be higher humidity at the equatorial regions that those areas would be protected even more. ??? But since there would be more humidity in the air, that would, I believe, lead to icecaps. Something which I had thought about, but did not put into my comments above. Earth appears to be self-balancing, as it would need to be. So the Chicken Littles will live their lives in fear and anxiety...for nothing. It's a beautiful thing, is it not? :O)